Blog Series: WoG, Cesky Krumlov: Day 12: Evolutionary genomics, Sake and a program called CRAP (you can't make this stuff up...)

Well I hope everyone has been enjoying reading about the various topics discussed at this workshop. Hopefully you have some new ideas, new programs and new considerations to fuel your OCD tendencies and make you twitch at night...

And with that...our last speaker for the workshop:

Antonis Rokas
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN

Topic Evolutionary Genomics

So, given we've been on high octane genomics using NGS for 11 days straight Antonis was merciful to us for this last talk and after a brief introduction to evolutionary genomics gave us some 'vignettes from the field' on the topics of comparative functional genomics, populations genomics and phylogenomics.

The progress of our understanding and study of genomics is no different than other fields historically. In geography old maps would have you falling off the end of the world (cause you know it's flat right?). Then as we became more informed about our world (and it helps that explorers didn't fall off the end) our maps evolved and today we have google maps, google view, google directions...yes, be comforted in knowing....google is always there...watching....you.

During our infantile understanding of chemistry--it was alchemy and you can imagine all the shenanigans that must've taken place as people desperately attempted to heal in a time of limited medicine, limited understanding of the human body and of disease in general--so they turn to herbs and 'potions' and did many things that ended up more harmful than helpful. Now there's a pill for everything...and then some!

When the first genomes were sequenced it was much the same thing...ok, we have a genome--now what. Some people though that discovering the genome and putting it together would decode the 'language' of life...not so much. In our process of understanding a genome, we conduct assembly, gene/ORF finding, assignation of motifs and regulatory areas if possible. Understanding genomes also requires theory just as differences in anatomy suggest adaptation in animals and similarity suggesting common origins; so is it with genomes. Similarity suggesting common origins and differences in sequence suggesting adaptation. Genomes provide a common 'yardstick'.